anæsthetic properties of chloroform. When once these properties were discovered, the use of chloroform was widely extended, and surgery was thereby deprived of one of its worst horrors. It is perhaps an exaggeration to say that these beneficent inventions were solely due to the kindlier instincts of the age; but those readers who have followed most closely the history of discovery, and who have noticed how rarely invention precedes the demand and how rapidly it overtakes it, will probably conclude that, while the rougher tendencies of the earlier years of the century prevented the adoption of Davy's and Faraday's discoveries, the kindlier instincts of the fifth decade of the century stimulated the application of chloroform so soon as Simpson had explained the advantages arising from its use. The kindly instincts which perhaps account for the adoption of anæsthetics, are among the chief characteristics of modern England. It is of much less importance to dwell on the main features of legislation than on the social tendencies of a generation. Yet the legislation of England, at any rate since 1820, has been marked by such striking peculiarities that it is worth while to point out the main lessons which are deducible from its study. The de The first characteristic in the legislation of modern England is the destruction of privilege. The privileges of birth, the privileges of office, the privileges of position, the struction of privileges of religion, the privileges of landowners, privilege. the privileges of traders, the privileges of the drama -these and many others were to a great extent swept away by the reform of municipal corporations, the abolition of sinecures, the subjecting members of Parliament to arrest for debt, the abolition of Church rates, the making real property liable for simple contract debts, the destruction of the monopoly of the East India Company, the termination of the monopoly of the patent theatres, and many other similar measures. removal of The destruction of privilege was the more marked because it was accompanied with what may be called the second characteristic in modern legislation, the The disabilities. removal of disabilities. The laws which disabled the Roman Catholic, the Nonconformist, the alien, and the Jew from holding certain offices, attaining certain positions, or possessing certain kinds of property were, if not wholly, at any rate to a great extent, swept away, while even the disability under which certain classes lay from their reluctance to be sworn was removed by the substitution of an affirmation for an oath in civil proceedings in 1854, and in criminal proceedings in 1861.1 Even those measures which we are accustomed to regard as the great reforms of the period were marked by the same characteristics, for the repeal of the Corn Laws was the abolition of the privilege of the landed classes to supply the people with food; while the Reform Act of 1832 removed the political disability under which the middle classes were lying, and destroyed the privileges which the borough owners had previously enjoyed. The greatest happiness of the greatest number. But there was another characteristic in the legislation of modern England. Up to 1820, laws, as a general rule, had been passed for the protection of the few against the many. After 1820, laws were usually passed for the protection of the many against the few. Parliament in the eighteenth century was occupied with protecting property against the people; Parliament in the nineteenth century has been protecting the people against property. In one period the slightest offences against property were made punishable with death; enclosure bills accumulated the waste lands of England on adjoining landowners; trades unions were reprobated and put down; real property was exempted from legacy duty; the stamp duties on large mortgages and conveyances were fixed at relatively lower rates than those on smaller transactions of the same kind; while the law of settlement and entail encouraged the accumulation of estates and prevented the alienation of property. In the other period, on the contrary, the punishment of death was reserved for the gravest offences against the person; enclosure bills were discouraged, or, where they were allowed, 1 17 & 18 Vict., c. 125; and 24 & 25 Vict., c. 66. the interests of the people were distinctly recognised; trades unions were gradually tolerated and at last made legal; succession duty was applied to real property; real estate was made liable to simple contract debts; the stamp duties were equalised; the smaller householders and poorer incomes were relieved from direct taxation; while the restraints on the alienation of land were removed, and settlements were made on more liberal principles. Add to these circumstances the striking facts that, in the same period, Parliament took steps to provide libraries, museums, picture galleries, parks, baths, wash-houses, and schools for the people, either wholly or largely at public cost; and that, by a series of Acts for the regulation of labour, it protected the more helpless members of society against their employers and themselves, and it will perhaps be plain how largely the legislation of the century has been legislation passed by the people for the people, to promote what Bentham called the greatest happiness of the greatest number. There is, I am aware, a general but most inaccurate impression that the revolution which was thus accomplished in legislation was attributable to the Reform Act of 1832. It was due to nothing of the kind. The reforms which have been accomplished in the nineteenth century have been con The reforms of the century have been due to opinion. sequent on the increasing power of the people and the augmented pressure of external opinion on the Legislature. I have endeavoured, in this history, to prove, indeed, that the Reform Act of 1832 was the completion, and not the commencement, of a period of reform, and that this Act, by creating a reaction, temporarily retarded the subsequent progress of reform. But I am far from thinking that the Reform Act did not supply a great and seasonable impulse. Before the Reform Act opinion had to overcome the passive resistance of two bodies-the House of Lords and the House of Commons-both recruited largely from the same classes, and consequently animated by similar views. After the Reform Act opinion in the House of Commons became more and more identified with opinion in the nation, and in consequence opinion, instead of finding itself opposed by two bodies, discovered in the Commons an ally to assist it in overcoming the resistance of the Lords. Let me now, once more, recapitulate the main lessons to be drawn from the history which I have endeavoured to narrate. From 1815 to 1861 1. The English-speaking people in the world increased from 30,000,000 to 70,000,000, and the people of the British Islands increased from 19,000,000 to 29,000,000. 2. The incomes of the people paying income-tax were doubled; in other words, the wealth of the upper and middle classes increased twice as rapidly as their numbers. 3. During the first half of the period, from 1816 to 1842, the condition of the poor became more degraded and more miserable; during the last half, from 1842 to 1861, the moral and material condition of the poor constantly improved. 4. The improvement in the material condition of the poor from 1842 to 1861 was due to (a) The extension of machinery and the application of steam to locomotion. (b) Emigration. (c) The modification of the law of settlement. (e) The financial and commercial policy of Peel's Ad- 5. The moral progress of the poor from 1842 to 1861 was due to (a) The improvement in their material condition. (b) The provision of an efficient police and the institution of a rational penal system. (c) The Poor Law of 1834. (d) The extension of elementary education. 6. The moral progress of the people was accompanied by a striking change in their habits, which may be traced in a slightly decreased consumption of alcohol and a large increase. in the consumption of tea. 7. The moral and material progress of the people was VOL. VI. 2.C accelerated by the greater attention paid to the sanitary state of towns, and to the condition of the dwellings of the poor. 8. Throughout the period kindlier feelings arose among all classes. These feelings led, among other things, to— . (a) The abolition of slavery. (b) The regulation of female and child labour. (c) The limitation of capital punishment. (d) The reform of the penal system. (e) The abolition of cruel punishments, e.g., the pillory (f) The abolition of imprisonment for debt. (h) The suspension of impressment. (i) The limitation of flogging in the army. (k) The prohibition of cruel sports. (7) The punishment of cruelty to animals. And to other similar changes. 9. In addition to these characteristics, the legislation of the age was marked by three other features (a) The destruction of privileges. (b) The removal of disabilities. (c) The protection of the many against the few. 10. Legislation has been uniformly moulded by opinion outside Parliament. 66 Such are, as I believe, the ten great lessons to be drawn from the history of England from 1815 to 1861. Compared with them, the rise and fall of ministries and the record of parliamentary successes and reverses are the mere leather and prunello" of history. Many of these results are connected with the names of no men. The annals of a nation are of infinitely more importance than the careers of its foremost citizens. Yet great men will always be associated with great events. Their part in the contest adds life and interest to the narrative; and, before I finally lay down my pen, therefore, I desire to enumerate some of the great men who have been the founders of modern England. |